1976 Cornwalls - matching amp question

[lastchancerecords]

I first heard a pair of Cornwalls in 1984 when my dad took me to a high end audio shop while shopping for a stereo. Long story short he ended up getting a cheaper Pioneer system and I've longed for these speakers ever since. I finally am in the position to have the space and means and ended up buying a pair of Cornwalls this weekend. According to the serial they were manufactured in September of 1976.

I'm a total newbie so forgive my ignorance but after looking through some of the forums I've narrowed a list of potential amps to the following and would like input:

Marantz 2230

Marantz 2252B

Marantz 250M

Nakamichi TA 2A

Long term I'd love to move into the world of McIntosh but don't have the means to afford it at this point. I'm primarily listening to vinyl on a Pro-Ject Debut III.

Any and all input, opinions, or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Travis Hill

[gnatnoop]

it was 1976 when i heard my first pair of corns, my roomate moved to his own place and bought a brand new pair of cornwalls. unfortunately, he was running them with an all jvc system and they sounded mediocre at best. since then i've heard corns many times and i'm always amazed at how good they sound.

point: don't do jvc or don't do my friends apartment.

[lastchancerecords]

Thanks for your reply. I intend to avoid both.

I'm in Little Rock as well.

[JerolW]

I bought my Cornwalls in 1976 and matched them with MC2505 and MX113.

jerol

[wantabeach]

My Cornwalls sound amazing with my Dynaco ST70 and PAS 3. Tubes and horns are the way to go. Clear and smooth. Had my Luxman R1050 integrated (fairly warms for solid state) hooked up but still sounds brittle and strident compared to the tubes. Love it!

[Chris A]

I've narrowed a list of potential amps to the following and would like input: Marantz 2230 Marantz 2252B Marantz 250M Nakamichi TA 2A Long term I'd love to move into the world of McIntosh but don't have the means to afford it at this point. I'm primarily listening to vinyl on a Pro-Ject Debut III. Any and all input, opinions, or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Well,

I found an input impedance curve for a CW (below) that shows three big spikes centered at ~22 Hz, 60 Hz and 2.5 KHz. There are impedance troughs between 30 to 50 Hz, and from 80 Hz to about 250 Hz.

The amps that you mention above are probably good bets. I'll comment on a bit more here for your reading pleasure...

If you consider using a high-output-impedance tube amp (like a single-ended triode [sET] or output transformerless [OTL]), you will get increased output at those troughs and reduced output at the peaks. If you have a parametric equalizer, you should EQ down at least the 80-250 Hz band a bit, and tilt up the 1-5 KHz band, then you would be good-to-go using an old tube amplifier. You would not have this issue if the amplifier's output impedance is less than 0.6 Ohms across the entire audio frequency spectrum when driving Cornwalls.

Other than that observation, many SS amps will probably do good service on CWs, especially ones that have fewer amplifier gain stages (class "A" amps sound best, IMHO), very low harmonic distortion, and high slew rate. I'd recommend the older Crown "D" series amps (D-45, D-75, D-75A) as low-cost alternatives.

Older McIntosh amps are usually good bets, but I'd make sure that the model that you choose has both very low harmonic distortion and low output noise: Roger Russell's site on Mac amps is a good guide.

See http://community.klipsch.com/forums/p/121449/1224102.aspx

Chris

[lastchancerecords]

Much appreciated info. I have a friend who is going to let me use a ss McIntosh until I decide what tube amp setup to go with.

[eq_shadimar]

I have a HK 510 solid state AVR driving my 5 (2x1976, 2x1979, and 1x1967 Vertical) Cornwalls with no issues. I also use a Fisher 500B tube amp but that is busted at the moment.

Laters,

Jeff